Crystal Fullerton Fine Art

 Muffin and her two ewe lambs only hours old

 Muffin and Wonder

  The Quads- Sweetie Belle, Jose, Jewel and Jack

Sometimes I wonder if I have bitten off more than I should chew. I do try to schedule things so that they should happen in a logical and orderly fashion, unfortunately the best laid plans are usually a figment of an over active imagination!

My daughter is in 4H and likes to show sheep, so I had my two best ewes "scheduled" to lamb out during my study break. Problem was the ewes had other plans. I had a flowchart posted in the barn showing the girls when it was convenient for me to have them lamb out. I learned the hard way that sheep are not trainable. I commanded, ordered, begged, pleaded and then admitted defeat. In my fantasy world, Wednesday was the great day. In sheep land, Monday, first day AFTER study break, was B day.

Muffin went first, was a sweetie in that she required no assistance from me other than fetching her errant ewe lamb who decided that wondering around the horse paddock was a grand plan for a new born. Chloe proved once again why Appaloosas rule. She stood silently as a white cotton ball of fluff zig zagged through her legs. Muffin was considerably less stressed than I was. The ewe lamb is now called "Wonder".

Precious, my Rideau ewe, decided that more is better. So on Monday morning at 5 am after I had a shower in preparation of a full school day, Prec began lambing. Lamb #1 arrived head first at 5:30 am. Shepard intervention helped realigne the birth and a beautiful ewe lamb hits the ground. My Jasmine bodywash has overtones of afterbirth and Prec makes it clear this is only the start. Lamb 2 arrives on her own, no problems so I set down beside her with my biochem text book and decide to try and cram some last minute info into my brain. I kinda want to pass my exam at noon. I figure Prec is passed the worst of it.

Wrong again. A sort of a foreshadowing for the exam later that day. Lamb 3 is a ram lamb who comes out upsidedown and backwards. Prec is pretty much toast by now. I can add sheep sweat to the increasing list of aromas I now exude.

My Shepard sense is tingling. I watch as momma licks the triplets and I just know there is a fourth in there. It soon becomes apparent that I am right. Damn. I give up all pretence of writing the dreaded biochem test but since it is Monday and I have 45 minutes to welcome the arrival of a new lamb, wash up and drive into school  I admit defeat. Lamb #4 is sideways.  After considerable effort on Prec and my part, Jack arrives. Quads. Great. A sheep only has two teats. Prec has four mouths to feed. My workload just doubled.

I did make it in to write the biochem exam. That weird smell..it was me. I learned I am a better Shepard than biochemist. I remind myself of that when I get the mark back and it is less than spectacular. Then I go out to the barn to bottle feed two lambs and I realize that my home run ratio is much more important to the quads than my GPA.